A new 7 minutes of terror: See the nail-biting Mars landing of NASA's Perseverance rover in this video

By Mike Wall 

There's a rocket-powered sky crane involved.

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Fly over NASA Mars Perseverance rover's landing site - Jezero Crater

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NASA's Mars 2020 Crater Will Land in Jezero Crater

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NASA's Perseverance rover is only a few days away from its daring seven-minute landing on Mars, where it will touch down on the most challenging terrain ever targeted by a Red Planet mission. 

On Feb. 18, the car-size Perseverance — the heart of NASA's Mars 2020 mission — will attempt to land inside the 28-mile-wide (45 kilometers) Jezero Crater. The entry, descent and landing (EDL) phase of a Mars mission is often referred to as "seven minutes of terror," because the sequence is so harrowing and happens faster than radio signals can reach Earth from Mars. That means the spacecraft is on its own once it enters the Martian atmosphere — and a gripping new video from NASA shows how the rover will pull off such an amazing feat. 

"Space always has a way of throwing us curveballs and surprising us," Swati Mohan, Mars 2020 guidance, navigation and control operations lead at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Southern California, says in the video. "There are many things that have to go right to get Perseverance on to the ground safely."

NASA's Perseverance Mars rover landing: Everything you need to know

https://www.space.com/perseverance-mars-2020-rover-landing-video?jwsource=cl

A diagram of the key steps in the Mars 2020 mission's entry, descent and landing sequence of Feb. 18, 2021. (Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech)

The EDL phase begins when the spacecraft reaches the top of the Martian atmosphere and ends with a rocket-powered sky crane lowering Perseverance safely to the surface of the Red Planet. The entire EDL sequence takes roughly seven minutes, during which many crucial steps must take place. The stakes are very high on Thursday for Mars 2020, which will hunt for signs of ancient life and collect samples for humanity's first interplanetary sample-return campaign. 

"There is a lot counting on this," Al Chen of JPL, Mars 2020 entry, descent and landing lead, says in the video. "This is the first leg of our sample return relay race — there is a lot of work on the line."

Shortly before reaching the Red Planet, Perseverance will shed its cruise stage, which helped fly the rover to Mars over the last 6.5 months. The next big milestone is atmospheric entry, when the rover will barrel into the Martian skies at about 12,100 mph (19,500 kph). 

Destination Mars: A timeline of Red Planet landings

The vehicle is equipped with a heat shield that will protect the rover from the intense heat generated during its initial descent and also help slow the spacecraft down. At about 7 miles (11 kilometers) above the surface, the spacecraft will deploy its 70.5-foot-wide (21.5 meters) supersonic parachute — the largest ever sent to another planet, according to the video. 

Soon after, the heat shield will separate and drop away from the spacecraft, exposing Perseverance to the Martian atmosphere for the first time and jumpstarting the vehicle’s Terrain-Relative Navigation system, which is a new autopilot technology that will help guide the rover to a safe landing on Mars. 

"Perseverance will be the first mission to use Terrain-Relative Navigation," Mohan says in the video. "While it’s descending on the parachute, it will actually be taking images of the surface of Mars and determining where to go based on what it sees. This is finally like landing with your eyes open — having this new technology really allows Perseverance to land in much more challenging terrain than Curiosity, or any previous Mars mission, could." 

In photos: NASA's Mars Perseverance rover mission

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Mars landing prep! NASA's Perseverance rover testing highlights

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Perseverance’s EDL sequence is very similar to that of NASA’s Curiosity rover, which landed in 2012. However, Perseverance is slightly bigger and equipped with more advanced scientific instruments, including new technology that will help guide the spacecraft through its difficult landing. 

Scientists believe an 820-foot-deep (250 m) lake filled Jezero Crater about 3.9 billion to 3.5 billion years ago. The area also has a prominent river delta, where water once flowed through and deposited lots of sediment. While this landing site offers geologically rich terrain, the rocks, craters and cliffs make it a very challenging place for Perseverance to land. 

"The science team identified Jezero Crater as basically an ancient lake bed and one of the most promising places to look for evidence of ancient microbial life, and to collect samples for future return to Earth," JPL's Matt Smith, flight director for Mars 2020 cruise operations, says in the video. "The problem is, it is a much more hazardous place to land." 

During the final minute before Perseverance lands on the Red Planet, the mission's sky-crane descent stage will fire up eight retrorockets, or Mars landing engines. Then, the sky crane will lower the rover safely to the ground on three nylon cables. Once the rover has made landfall, it will cut the cables connecting it to the descent stage, which will then fly off and crash-land safely away from Perseverance. 

"Surviving that seven minutes is really just the beginning for Perseverance," Chen says in the video. "Its job — being the first leg of sample-return; to go look for those signs of past life on Mars — all that can’t start until we get Perseverance safely to the ground, and then that’s when the real mission begins." 

The 20 best places to tackle US farm nitrogen pollution

Scientists find 63% of surplus US cropland nitrogen in only 24% of cropland area, reveal which counties to target

UNIVERSITY OF VERMONT

Research News

 

IMAGE: A NEW STUDY REVEALS THE 20 BEST PLACES TO TACKLE U.S. FARM NITROGEN POLLUTION. view more 

CREDIT: UNIVERSITY OF VERMONT

A pioneering study of U.S nitrogen use in agriculture has identified 20 places across the country where farmers, government, and citizens should target nitrogen reduction efforts.

Nitrogen from fertilizer and manure is essential for crop growth, but in high levels can cause a host of problems, including coastal "dead zones", freshwater pollution, poor air quality, biodiversity loss, and greenhouse gas emissions.

The 20 nitrogen "hotspots of opportunity" represent a whopping 63% of the total surplus nitrogen balance in U.S. croplands, but only 24% of U.S. cropland area. In total, they comprise 759 counties across more than 30 states, finds the study in Environmental Research Letters.

The top-ranked hotspot to target, based on total excess nitrogen, is a 61-county area across Illinois, Indiana, Missouri and Wisconsin. That's followed by a 55-county region in Kansas and Nebraska in second place, and 38 counties in Iowa, Minnesota and South Dakota in third. (Click for a full list of the 20 regions).

Several of the 20 hotspots--with high nitrogen balances per acre--surprised the researchers, particularly in the West--including a 32-county hotspot in Idaho, Montana, Wyoming and Utah--and the South (six hotspots across Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, and Florida). Also on the list are chronic nitrogen problem areas, such as the Mississippi River Basin, Chesapeake Bay, and California's Central Valley.

"This study provides new perspective on where to focus efforts to tackle America's nitrogen problems," says lead author Eric Roy of the University of Vermont. "The U.S. has so many nitrogen trouble zones, and making progress will be easier in some locations than others. That's why this research is important. It reveals where programs aiming to increase the efficiency of farm nitrogen use are most likely to be successful."

First-of-its-kind study

Why these particular 20 hotspots? First, the study shows that nitrogen inputs are so high in many of these areas that farmers can most likely reduce nitrogen use without hurting crop yields. "This is a crucial finding because farmers naturally worry about lower crop yields when reducing nitrogen inputs," says UVM co-author Meredith Niles. "And we don't want to compromise food security goals."

Second--and perhaps most importantly--the study is the first to provide a robust, national analysis of underlying social, economic and agronomic factors linked to nitrogen balances on croplands at the county-level. That makes it one of the most comprehensive studies of U.S. nitrogen use to date.

Examples of these underlying factors include climate change beliefs, crop mix, precipitation, soil productivity, farm operating expenses, and more.

By examining these predictors, researchers were able to identify nitrogen hotspots where reductions in excess nitrogen are most achievable. Surplus nitrogen use was higher than expected in these regions based on the mix of underlying factors--suggesting less barriers to successful nitrogen reduction efforts.

"This suggests that nitrogen reduction programs--including those that offer farmers' financial incentives--have the highest potential for success in these 20 regions," says co-author Courtney Hammond Wagner of Stanford University, who recently completed a PhD at University of Vermont.

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Nitrogen imbalances occur when applications of nitrogen--primarily in fertilizer and manure--exceed what the crops can use.

Eric Roy is a Gund Fellow from the Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources and the Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEMS). Meredith Niles is a Gund Fellow from the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. Courtney Hammond Wagner is a recent Gund Graduate Fellow.

A new, clearer insight into Earth's hidden crystals

TRINITY COLLEGE DUBLIN

Research News

 

IMAGE: A TRANSMITTED LIGHT VIEW THROUGH A 200-MICRON SECTION OF A PERIDOTITE SAMPLE, SHOWING THE THREE MAIN MINERALS - OLIVINE (CLEAR-GREEN), ORTHOPYROXENE (GREY-GREEN) AND GARNET (PINK). view more 

CREDIT: DR EMMA TOMLINSON, TRINITY COLLEGE DUBLIN.

Geologists have developed a new theory about the state of Earth billions of years ago after examining the very old rocks formed in the Earth's mantle below the continents.

Assistant Professor Emma Tomlinson from Trinity College Dublin and Queensland University of Technology's Professor Balz Kamber have just published their research in leading international journal, Nature Communications.

The seven continents on Earth today are each built around a stable interior called a craton, and geologists believe that craton stabilisation some 2.5 - 3 billion years ago was critical to the emergence of land masses on Earth.

Little is known about how cratons and their supporting mantle keels formed, but important clues can be found in peridotite xenoliths, which are samples of mantle that are brought to the Earth's surface by erupting volcanoes.

Dr Tomlinson, from Trinity's School of Natural Sciences, said:

"Many rocks from the mantle below old continents contain a surprising amount of silica - much more than is found in younger parts of the mantle."

"There is currently no scientific consensus about the reason for this."

The new research, which looks at the global data for mantle peridotite, comes up with a new explanation for this observation.

The research used a new thermodynamic model to calculate that the unusual mineralogy developed when very hot molten rock-- greater than 1700 °C - interacted with older parts of the mantle and this caused the growth of silica-rich minerals.

"For more than 1 billion years, from 3.8 to 2.5 billion years ago, volcanoes also erupted very unusual lavas of very low viscosity - lava that was very thin, very hot and often contained variable levels of silica," Dr Tomlinson added.

"Our modelling suggests that the unusual lavas were in fact the molten rocks that interacted with the mantle at great depth and this interaction resulted in the variable level of silica."

Professor Kamber, QUT, said:

"Both the silica-rich rocks in the deep mantle and the low viscosity volcanic rocks stopped being made by the Earth some 2.5 billion years ago. This timing is the boundary between the Archaean and Proterozoic eons - one of the most significant breaks in Earth's geological timescale."

What caused this boundary remains unknown, but the research offers a new perspective.

Professor Kamber added:

"This may have been due to a change in how the mantle was flowing. Once the mantle started slowly turning over all the way down to the core (2,900 km), the very high temperatures of the Archaean eon were no longer possible."

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Breeding better seeds: Healthy food for more people

AMERICAN SOCIETY OF AGRONOMY

Research News

 

IMAGE: RESEARCHERS USED GENETIC ENGINEERING TO CREATE A TYPE OF COTTON SEED WITHOUT A SUBSTANCE THAT IS TOXIC TO HUMANS. NOW HUMANS CAN EAT THESE COTTON SEEDS, WHICH ARE A GREAT... view more 

CREDIT: BETH LUEDEKER

Your morning cereal or oatmeal. The bread on your sandwich. The corn chips for your snack, and the cookies for dessert. Not one would be possible with the humblest of ingredients: the seed.

Seeds such as wheat, rice and corn directly provide about 70% of the calories eaten by people every day. And they ultimately provide nearly every morsel of food, either by providing feed for livestock or by being grown into fruits and vegetables. It's no overstatement to say that without seeds, civilization would be impossible.

But seeds need our help. They are under stress from climate change, and under pressure to feed a growing population.

Scores of dedicated scientists spend their careers working to improve seeds. They are using the latest scientific advances to make seeds larger, more nutritious, and more resilient to stress.

Rodomiro Ortiz studies how plant breeding can help meet these goals. His research was recently published in Crop Science, a journal of the Crop Science Society of America.

As the science behind seed improvements, plant breeding is the foundation for ensuring agriculture meets humanity's needs.

"The seeds generated from plant breeding have desired traits that allow increases in productivity, reduce human malnutrition, improve genetic diversity in ecosystems, and ensure sustainable food production under the specter of global warming," says Ortiz.

Classic plant breeding doesn't add in extra DNA like genetic engineering does. Instead, plant breeders cross plants that each have uniquely strong features to create a new plant with several beneficial traits. The same process has been used by farmers and scientists for thousands of years to make better crops.

But today, plant breeders have access to more information and more tools than ever. For example, the widespread use of DNA sequencing gives plant breeders huge troves of data about useful genes. By figuring out which genes give rise to which useful traits, plant breeders can develop new varieties of crops much more quickly.

"Genome-derived knowledge of seed biology can enhance crop productivity, to improve food and nutritional supply through plant breeding," says Ortiz.

CAPTION

A team of scientist investigates how to breed quinoa to be more heat tolerant as some areas have experienced slowly increasing temperatures or more frequent and extreme spikes in temperature. These tolerant quinoa varieties will produce seed, even in harsh conditions.

CREDIT

Kevin Murphy

But genes are only one piece of the puzzle. Scientists like Ortiz need to know how the plant grows and what it looks like. In the past, scientists might have been able to easily look and tell that one plant had, for example, larger seeds. But today, improving seeds requires ever greater detail.

Enter phenotyping, the science of measurement. A plant's phenotype is its entire expression of its genes in its environment. The height and color of the plant. Its seeds' weight and shape. Its tendency to resist or succumb to disease -- these are all the phenotype.

Capturing this information is time intensive. Some of these traits are impossible for humans to even see. And seeds in particular are so small, measuring them by hand is unrealistic. Technology comes to the rescue.

"Phenotyping seed traits is a major bottleneck to systematic analysis of seed variation," says Ortiz. "Advances in digital imaging technology can automatically measure a variety of shape parameters using high resolution images of seeds."

With these tools in hand, plant breeders can improve seeds and develop new crop varieties faster than ever. Ortiz envisions making seeds larger, so each one has more calories to feed people. Larger seeds can also help the next generation of crops quickly grow in the fields, ready to produce a big yield. And plant breeders are trying to make seed proteins more nutritious or the fats inside seeds stable enough to last on grocery store shelves for longer.

Each of those improvements mean stronger seeds, and better food, for more people. So with your next spoonful of chewy oatmeal, consider the humble seed -- and the advanced tech and know-how -- behind every bite.

CAPTION

Dry beans are a vital source of protein worldwide. Researchers used crop breeding to develop a new variety of pinto bean that darkens slower than the traditional pinto bean, which is desirable for consumers.

CREDIT

Juan Osorno

Rodomiro Ortiz is a professor of plant breeding at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences. This work was supported by the Science Foundation Ireland, Irish Research Council, Natural Sciences and Engineering Council of Canada, and the Manitoba Wheat and Barley Growers Association.